Planter.



Patented oct. 3o, |900.

4 S. G. SPARRUW'.

P L A N T E R.

(Application med my 5, 1900.)

2 Sheets-Sheet I.

(No Model.)

W/T/VESSES No. 000,934. P'atenteduct. 30, |900.

S. G. SPABRW.

PLANTER.

(Application filed May 5, 19000) (N0 Windel.) 2 Sheets- Sheet 2.

Sie/@en G. Sparraw.

A WOHNEYS UNrrED STATES l PATENT CFFICE.

ASTEPHEN GREEN SPARROW, OFKEMINENCE, KENTUCKY, ASSIGNOR OF TWO'- THIRDS TO CHARLES O. LECOMPTE, RICHARD N. SMITH, AND SALLIE SLAUGHTEE, oF sAME PLACE.

PLAN-TER,

sEcIFIcATIoN forming' part efLeaers Patent No. 660,934, dated october 3o, ie.

' Application inea myA 5, 1900. semi No. 15,616. (No model.)

To @ZZ whom t may concern.-

Beit known that I, STEPHEN GREEN SPAR- ROW, a citizen of the'United States, and a resident of Eminence, in the county of Henry and State of Kentucky, have invented a new and Improved Planter, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

One purpose of this invention is to so construct a planter for corn and other seed that lo the trip mechanism of the seedboxes will be operated whenever desired from onel of the ground-wheels of the machine.

Another purpose of the invention is to provide checks upon one of the ground-wheels,

so placed that checking may be accomplished both ways, dispensing with the check-rowing wire and the so-called automatic stake-setter, and means whereby the wheel carrying the checks may beelevated and revolved to zo register with a row when necessary, and also to provide effective devices under the control of the driver for closing the furrow and covering the seed, together with means for separating the seed at the time the seed is delivered to the furrow, thus preventing the seed being planted in a mass. A

The invention consists in the novel construction and combination of the several parts, as will be hereinafter fully set forth,

3o and pointed out in the claims.

Reference is to be had to the accompanyingdrawings, forming a part of this specification, in which similar characters of reference indicate corresponding parts in all the figures. Figure 1 is a vertical section taken practically on the line 1 1 of Fig. 2. Fig. 2 is a plan view of the improved machine. Fig. 3 is a rear elevation of the machine, the wheel carrying the check devices being in vertical 4o section. Fig. 4: is a plan View of one of the seedboxes. Fig. 5 is a vertical section through one of the seedboxes, the section being taken practically on ,the line 5'5 of Fig. 4. Fig. 6 is a detail sectional view of a portion of the main frame, illustrating also in section and in detail the mechanism for operating the seed-drop slide from one of the supportingwheels. Fig. 7 is a plan view of a rotary seeddropper which may be substituted for the reciprocating dropper shown in Figs. 4 and 5; 5o and Fig. 8 is a rear elevation of a seedbox and v spout, the lower portion of the spout appear- `ing in section.

yhand wheel 10 also carries two or more check devices 14, which are usually of U form, as represented, and are secured to the rim of the WheeLeXtending up to the tire, as shown Y best in Fig. 3, and these check devices are located opposite the cams or offsets 13, carried by the same wheel, as shown in Fig. 1. It will be understood that the cams or offsets 13 and the check devices 14 may be placed at 7o any necessary distance apart for elfective drilling or sowing seed of any kind.

The drivers seat 15 is secured to the axle A in any suitable manner, and in front of the drivers seat a shaft 16 is mounted in bear- 75 ings 17, carried by the axle, and said shaft 16 is provided with a foot-lever 1S, readily operated by the driver and likewise with a handlever 19, the hand-lever being attached either directly to the shaft 16 or to one of two arms 8o 20, which extend forward from the said shaft, usually at points near its ends. These arms 20 are pivotally attached to or pivotally receive uprights 21, which are mounted to slide in guides carried by the forward portion of the axle A, and' each upright 21 is provided vat its bottom with a pivotally-attached shoe 22, adapted for engagement with the ground.

'lhe uprights 21 are usually connected by means of..bracebars23, soth'at they- -will act `9o in unison. Y n

Vhenit is desired to shift the right-hand or check wheel of the machine, either lever 18 or 19 is pressed downward or both levers may be so pressed, thus bringing the shoes 22 in 95 engagement with the ground and elevating the axle a sucient distance to permit the right-hand wheel 10 to be conveniently rotated; but a single lever may be used for this` purpose. A frame B is supported from the axle A, and said frame B extends forward and carries the seedboxes C, which latter may be of any approved construction. As illustrated, the frame B comprises side bars 25, connected byfrontandintermediate bars 26and27,apole or tongue 28 being attached to the front bar 26 of said frame. A cross-bar 28 is attached to this pole or tongue, extending beyond opposite sides thereof, and is suitably braced by forwardly-extending converging braces 29, as shown in Fig. 2. Runners or furrow-openers 30 are attached at their forward upper ends to the bar 2S, while the rear portions of the runners are connected with chutes 3l, which chutes are adapted to receive the seed from the drop-slides and are consequently connected with the bottom portion of the seedboxes C, as illustrated particularly in Fig. 5.

It is preferable that the seed shall be separated at the time the seed is delivered in the furrow, and to that end the heel of each runner 30, which heel portions of the runners are conductors for the seed, is divided into two compartments 322L and 32h by a central partition 32, and under such a-construction it is obvious that the seed will not be planted in a mass.

The marking-arm 33 is of the usual construction and is provided with a markinghead 34 at its outer end, the inner end of said marking-arin 33 being pivoted at 35 in any approved manner to the pole 28, so that the said marking-arm may be readily carried over from the left-hand to the right-hand side of the machine, o1' vice versa, as required. The marking arm 33 is usually manipulated through the medium of a cord, rope, or chain 36, attached to the arm and to the tongue or pole; but it will be understood that the marking-arm 33 may be manipulated from the drivers seat, if desired, in any approved mannel'. The tongue or pole 2S is provided with an equalizer or adou bletree, as occasion may demand.

The frame B is pivotally connected with the axle A usually in the tnanner illustrated in Figs. l and 2, in which it will be observed that castings or forgings 3c are secured to the rear ends of the side bars 25 of the frame B. These castings or forgings are provided with vertical openings extending through their rear portions from top to bottom, and likewise side openings 39, through which pins 40 are passed, and these pins are likewise passed through the pendent portions of bracket-s 40, which brackets 40 are secured to the axle. Under this arrangement the frame B is not only pivotally attached to the axle, but is likewise capable of vertical movement.

The frame Bis provided with a rear bar 37, which is simply a cross-bar; but this rear bar 37 is attached to a link 41, and the link 4l is connected with a lever 42, mounted on the axle A, the lever operating in connection with a rack 43, carried by the axle, as illustrated in Fig. l. By means of the lever 42 the frame B may be raised or lowered.

A shaft 44 is mounted to turn at its ends in suitable bearings supported by the side portions of the frame B, and at the righthand end of the shaft 44 a sleeve 45 is mounted to slide on the shaft, yet turn therewith. 'lhis sleeve is normally held at the right-hand extremity of the shaft. 44 by a spring 46, and a shifting lever 48 is utilized to control the movement of the sleeve 45, the shift-ing lever being fulcrumed usually on the right-hand side bar 25 of the frame B, as illustrated in Fig. 6. The shifting lever48is connected by a link 49 with a levell 50, and this lever 50 is pivoted upon a bracket 5l, forwardly` projected from the axle A, the bracket havinga rack formed thereon which is engaged by the usual thumb-piece with which the said lever is provided.

The sleeve 45 is provided at its outer end With an arm 47, and when the sleeve 45 is in its normal position or is held at the outer end of the shaft 44 by the spring 46 as the right-l hand wheel revolves the cams or projections 13 on the `rim l2, carried by the right-hand ground-wheel l0, willengage with thearm 47, and thus rock the shaft 44, and as soon as the arm 47 of the said sleeve is released from engagement with an oset or cam 13 springs 53, carried by arms 52, secu red to the shaft, will return Vthe shaft 44 to its normal position, the springs 53 being attached, preferably, to the seedboxes (l, as shown in Figs. l and 2. The shaft 44 is adapted to operate the seed-dropping devices carried by the seedhoxes C. The seed-dropping mechanism may be of the reciprocating character shown in Fig. 4 or it may be ot' the rotary type, as illustrated in Fig. 7, the seedboxes being adapted to accommodate either type.

Undertheconstructionshown in Figs. 4 and 5 a seed-drop slide D is mounted to slide in the bottom of each seedbox. This seed-dro`p slide is provided with an opening 55, which is in the nature of a pocket and is adapted to receive seed, and as the drop-slides D are cat'- ried rearward the seed in the pockets 55 will be discharged in the chutes 3l.

It is sometimes necessary to regulate the number of seeds in a pocket 55. Therefore the seed-drop slide at the rear of its pocket 55 is provided with a depression 56, in which a plate 57 is adapted to slide, having a flange at that end which enters the pocket 55, and the position oi' the regulatng-slide 57 is con trolled by a set-screw 5S, passed through a suitable slot in the said regulating-slide, as shown in Fig. 4. These seed-drop slides D are pivotally connected with arms 5U, and these arms are attached to the rock-shaft 44. Thus each time that the rock-shaft is actuated by a cam or projection 13, engaging with the arm 47, carried by the shaft, a seed-drop slide is drawn rearward and the seed is deposited in the chute belonging to the seedbox in which the slide has movement.

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In Fig. 7 I have illustrated a rotary form of seed-drop slide which consists of a disk E, havinga series of pockets produced therein near its periphery, and a corresponding number of ratchet-teeth 60a at its peripheral surface. This disk or wheel is provided with an arbor 60", and this arbor, when a rotary drop Eis employed, is mounted in a bearing 6l produced in the central portion of the bottom of the seed box,and the rotary drop is actuated each time the rock-shaft is given motion in the manner described through the medium of a dog 62, which is mounted to slide in the seedbox, and its inner end is arranged for engagement with the ratchet-teeth of the rotary drop, while the outer or rear end of the dog is pivotally attached to an arm 63, carried by the said rock-shaft 44.

It is very necessary that the seed planted in the ground should be covered just after being deposited therein, and this is accomplished by pivoting a frame 64 to each seedconducting chute 31, which frames extend rearward and are bifurcated at their front and at their rear end portions. The members of the rear end portions of these coveringframes 64 have disks 65, pivotally attached thereto at their inner faces,and these disks are preferably convexed at their outer surfaces and are concaved at their inner faces. The disks 65 of the coveringframes are heldin engagement with the ground through the inedium of springs 67, which are coiled around rods 66, attached to the fralnes'a, the upper ends of the springs having bearing.preferably,against a cross-bar of the frame B, as shown in Fig. 3. When it is desired to carry the covering devices out of engagement with the ground, this effect is accomplished through the medium of levers 68, which extend in direction of the drivers seat and are attached to the lift-rods 66, connected with the coveringframes 64, the said levers being shown as fulcrumed upon standards 69, attached to any convenient portion of the front frame B.

It will be observed that the mechanism of the planter is under perfect control of the driver and that the amount of seed toA be dropped can be regulated and likewise the seed distributed while being dropped, so that it' will not fall in a mass upon the ground.

Having thus described my invention, I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patentl. In a planter, thecombination, withv an axle, supporting-wheels carried-thereby, one of said supporting-wheels being provided with check-markers and with offsets in alinelnent with said markers, of a frame supported from the axle, a rock-shaft carried by the frame, seedboxes likewise carried bythe frame and provided with seed-dropping mechanism, which mechanism is connected with and is actuated from the rock-shaft, runnerlike chutes carried by the boxes, a springcontrolled sleeve mounted on the shaft to slide thereon and turn therewith, one portion of the said sleeve being adapted to be engaged by the offsets on the said ground-wheel,

shaft, having an extension arranged to be engaged by the projections on the groundwheel carrying the marking-checks, and a shifting lever connected with the said sleeve. 3. In a planter, the combination with an axle, supporting-wheels for the same and a frame connected with the axle, of seedboxes, the seed-dropping mechanism whereof is controlled by the movements of one of the ground-Wheels, delivery-chutes leading from the seedboxes, runners attached to the frame and extended rearward, the said runners having connection with the delivery-chutes and having outlets for the'seed, and coveringdisks located at the rear of the delivery-ch utes. 4. In a planter, the combination, with an axle, supporting-wheels for the same, and a frame connected with the axle, of seedboxes the seed-droppin g mechanism whereof is controlled by the movement of one of the groundwheels, delivery -chutes for the Seed, and divided into compartments at the outlet end andvconnected with the seedboxes, coveringdisks located at the rear of the deliverychutes, tension devices acting normally .to force the covering devices in a downward direction, lift-levers for said covering devices, and a lifting mechanism for the axle of the machine, for the purpose specified.

5. In a planter-a seedbox, a deliverychute for the seedbox, and a runner connected with the delivery-chute, the delivery portion of the runner being divided into compartments, whereby the seeds` conveyed to the runner are separated before reaching the ground, as described. f f

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses. STEPHEN GREEN SPARROW.

Witnesses:

C. R. JOHNSON, C. B. J oNns.

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